Zomba District Social Welfare Office and organisations that provide school fees for needy students have asked the Ministry of Education to make sure there is uniformity in government secondary schools.
The Social Welfare Office and the organisations expressed concern over school fees’ non-uniformity during a review meeting on how they performed in terms of bursary provision in 2024.
District Social Welfare Officer for Zomba, Christopher Ndaona and the organisations said were surprised that different public secondary schools have their school fees.
The organisation say they find it difficult to explain the fee’s nonuniformity to donors.
The organisations cited a case of Mulunguzi and Masongola Secondary School, saying they fail to understand why Mulunguzi Secondary fees are at K140,000 when Masongola, another district secondary school, is at K180,000.
“We have many needy students who are on bursary programs. We find it difficult to explain this nonuniformity when reporting to donors,” Ndaona expressed concern.
Partners in Action for Sustainable Development (PASD) Executive Director, Amos Chiyenda concurred with Ndaona on the call for school fees uniformity in public secondary schools.
He said donors have been questioning the school fees uniformity in public secondary schools but failed to provide a convincing response to this.
Ministry of Education spokesperson, Mphatso Nkuonera acknowledged the nonuniformity and said the ministry is looking into the issue.
He, however, did not say when the ministry will resolve the issue.
